First weekend

in C-ville. Devoid of much needed distractions (it’s only been 5 days) i’ve taken up studying of car bumper stickers. They are fascinating and American. One can say quite a few things about a person by the car he/she’s driving and the bumper sticker(s) he’s stuck up the butt of the car.

It seems Creigh Deeds, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee for the upcoming election is having an “enthusiasm gap”. In all 5 days I don’t remember noticing a single Deeds bumbep sticker. While I’ve seen almost a dozen McDonnell (Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate) stickers. Even “women for McDonnell” ones.

This wouldn’t have been a problem for Deeds had this been rural Southside Virginia, Shenandoah Valley or even the Virginia Beach region. But this is Charlottesville we’re talking about. If folks in a county 3-to-2 Democratic and a 2-to-1 Democratic university town don’t go out there and take the effort to put a bumper sticker for you then you aren’t such an exciting guy to root for or, you seriously need to shake up your organization. Which is exactly what Deeds is doing supposedly by shaking up his top campiagn staff.

That Deeds is having trouble is evident by his campaign office in the Downtown Mall down here. There was only one guy standing outside the office in the middle of the day in a friday. It was probably lunch time but man, seriously. The bumper sticker story of Deeds affirms what I’ve heard in the political press. Deeds is having an enthusiasm gap. Maybe it will change in the next 3 months. We’ll see.

Although, the Blue underpinnings of Charlottesville can be surmised from the fact that there were cars with Obama/Biden ‘08 stickers.  I saw 4 yesterday. Even one Webb sticker (Jim Webb, the junior Senator to the US Senate and a Democrat) downtown.

The most interesting view was an African American dude driving a red Japanese made wagon. He had a Bush ‘04 sticker and a McCain ‘08 sticker. In an election where almost 94% of the Black vote went to Obama, that guy indeed is a standout from the crowd.

Arrival

The first thing to hit me in the D of C is a violent streak of heat, almost as if I landed in Bhopal or Nagpur or something in the middle of summer. And summer it is down here in good ol’ Virginny. I think I heard this RJ of some DC station saying it’s the hottest day of summer. And to think of that, my AC was broke for the day. How Americanised I’ve become. I expect my AC to run 24×7 when it’s not even 35 degrees celcius. That’s another thing. I need to get used to the Fahrenheit thing.

The advantage of living in a university town is that you’re likely going to get most conveniences within a mile of where you live. Bank, McD, RadioShack, even an Indian restaurant called Milan. Although i don’t think i would be going there anytime soon. There’s Pizza Hut& Domino’s as well. 30 minutes nahi toh free.

So here’s the best joke I heard the arrival day. The same RJ. It’s so hot today I called up my ex-girlfriend to got a cold shoulder. That’s one good alternative rock-cum-everything station. Anyone coming to DC/northern Virginia area should check it out. 107.5 FM. Good music. Speaking of which, I already love Pandora radio. One can’t get it back in India or most places in the world for that matter.

Australia

So I went to watch Australia this wednesday afternoon at INOX Forum. The thing is, all I remember of the movie was Hugh Jackman near the beginning telling Nicole Kidman ‘this is Australia’. And there was a bloodied dead kangaroo over a car. Or was it a koala? I honestly don’t remember watching a single minute of the 160 minute long movie. Now that I think of it seems all the 160 minutes flew by in mere 16 minutes. It was that intense.

To top of it all, I mightily perturbed the hunky Jackman bliss of a bunch of Buddhist female monks sitting across the aisle. Australia was rough and wild indeed.